That's exactly my point, why on earth would they want to do this? They won't, all they will do is have us assemble a few cars so IDIOTS!!! can say "see they are bringing work to our country so there's no difference between buying a hyundai or a GM". I don't see a gap to close. Until I see a 500,000 mile long term test covering enough vehicles to be relevant, I consider any general statement saying GM vehicles suck as an idiotic statement. I know it might be hard for someone to believe that it's possible to go from a car that retails at $70,000 to one that retails at $28,000 but that's my personal experience and I'll stand by it. Like I said, feel free to go back to that message board I posted and see all the complainers yourself. You will find me in there also if you go all the way back to the beginning of 2004 I'm not the one who started this discussion. I don't go on message boards putting down products from foriegn cars, but I feel someone needs to stand up and set straight some of these idiotic general statements about the quality of GM vehicles. Like I said, if you don't want to hear the music, then drive your foriegn cars and keep your mouth zipped.
Not taking sides in this one ... but, factually, you have to give GM credit for a good showing in the 2005 JD Power reliability survey. * Lexus 139 PP100 * Porsche 149 PP100 * Lincoln 151 PP100 * Buick 163 PP100 * Cadillac 175 PP100 * Infiniti 178 PP100 * Toyota 194 PP100 * Mercury 195 PP100 * Honda 201 PP100 * Acura 203 PP100 I think PP100 means reported car problems per 100 people interviewed. Will you be able to get 200,000 miles out of a Chevy Malibu like you can out of a Honda Accord? I don't know. We'll find out in about 6 or 7 years.
Ok, I won't call you an idiot, but you just made the most idiotic statement here. My experience has been the opposite of that. If I can go over 300,000 miles on a GM vehicle and the motor transmission and radiator all original and never touched by a mechanic and only need to change a fuel pump and an onboard computer and the car was still in perfect condition when sold, how much better can you expect a car to be. This is my experience on every GM I have owned. I have tried other cars, and my parents only drive Japanese, German and Korean cars and I see they are not perfect cars, not in the least.
GM's will do 200,000 miles for breakfast. Here's a 2002 Malibu for sale with 221,000 miles, buy it, should be good for another 200k http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.j...00&isp=y&pager.offset=100&lang=en&cardist=924
That's a shock lol... well, that didn't last long. You don't seem very disciplined. Or you make a distinction between calling a person an idiot and telling a person that their opinion is idiotic? Just to let you know, in case you actually don't understand this... they are equally insulting, especially coming from you. Your experience has proven to be a fabrication. (740iL $70K? Maybe without a motor or interior, or maybe if it was a 1990 bought in 2000). Have you ever owned your own vehicle? (sigh)... my last post here. Listen... the point is that the vast majority of people DON'T have this experience with GM cars. This isn't the prejudiced ranting of 'idiots', it's the fact as reported by GM owners and indicated by analysis of vehicle quality. This may or may not be true TODAY for EVERY VEHICLE that rolls off a GM line . But is was certainly true in the PAST. So a big part of GM's problem is that of perception; how can they get people to change their perception that GM cars are of inferior quality? Personally I believe that they are still of inferior quality, but someone like you, instead of calling people names like you were 10 years old, should put forward some solutions, some ideas about how GM can regain their market share.
You don't know too much about BMW's, a 740iL is not a new BMW. Mine was a 1997 and retailed for $72,000. Just because a car is a few years old doesn't mean it should fall apart on you. You talk about perception? Go visit that BMW message board I posted previously. You say my posts are childish? Buddy take a look at yours, you must be 2 years old. Wishing GM would go bankrupt sooner the better, calling GM a dinasuar. You ever see Jurassic Park?
BMWâs are far better then American cars. I think the Japanese higher end cars are a lot cheaper then the BMWâs and are built just as well. I think the BMW might be a drop better but the real thing you get with a new BMW is the great service with short waits. I honestly think American car makers are jokes. They do make ok trucks but i still think they fall short against Japanese makers overall.
I'll say my 740iL had an awesome interior and very comfortable. Many aspects of BMW are better, they better be for the price tag. I liked the automatic shade on the rear window at the touch of a button, heated steering wheel great in winter, traction control worked great on this heavy vehicle in the snow. Solid feel on the road no doubt, but quality, reliability, durability not any better in fact in my opinion and many on the BMW message board it is lacking in many areas. Here's a list of problems I had and they are common, so common you will see the same problems over and over on that board. Radiator is plastic and has catastrophic failures. From that message board average life of the radiator is 50,000, some suggest changing it every 40,000 miles but this may not always work because many state only 19,000 miles before going. BTW thiese are all from neck failures and BMW will not cover them regardless of how much negative publicity they get. Resevoir tank and heater core and water pump are all very weak on these cars and go just about at the same time the radiator goes. Very expensive to fix them all. I replaced all of these on my car. Engine block and heads are aluminum and get damaged far sooner than the cars electronics notifies the owner of a dangerous heating problem. Engine costs $12,000 to replace. 45-55 MPH shimmy that just about everyone with a 740 will tell you they have. You can spend thousands to fix this problem but it will return in months. Steering wheel kick back at 45 MPH and up when hitting certain bumps. Cold morning 10 second shake at start, very common on these. I avoided this by having to floor the gas pedal and turn the key then let off on the gas as the engine would smooth off. Again, this is a re-occuring problem. Throttle linkage is really poor, gets stuck at full throttle resulting in a dangerous situation. Front suspension is very weak and you will always find yourself replacing one part or another. The interior electronics always always lose some pixels, and BMW is quietly covering this but only for the big complainers that go direct to the top. Oil pump has bolts that get loose and fall into the sump, so you regularly have to go in there and tighten them. Besides all these problems I have always thought in my mind that a BMW engine is at least very durable but from many many other posts, if you are lucky enough to get 150,000 miles on one of these they very commonly develop a fatal engine knock. Bring it to the mechanic and they will find the oil pump has been spitting out plastic broken pieces thus causing slightly lower oil pressure which damages the engine internally giving that nasty knock. Still think BMW is better?
I Back in 1998 I bougth a brand new 1998 model 750il. It was a POS. It was built in August. Never buy a German car built in August. The entire frame was out of skew. I had to get the door reset. The frame caused the windshield to be out of specs relative to the wiper blades. This caused the wipers not to work properly. About 6 months after I got it the airbag light comes on. They could not fix it. Therefore for the next 4 years I drove around with airbag light on in a $100k car. American cars are much much better now then in the past. People who say otherwise don't remember how bad cars were built in the early 70's. I drive a Lexus now. It is the best car out there. John